Thousands of former child soldiers who fought for the Maoists in Nepal’s decade-long civil war were yesterday to begin leaving the UN-monitored camps where they have spent the past three years.
Around 250 young men and women were to swap their blue People’s Liberation Army (PLA) uniforms for civilian clothes and begin their journey home after an official ceremony at the Sindhuli camp in central Nepal.
They are the first of almost 24,000 former Maoist fighters living in camps around the country to be officially discharged as part of the 2006 agreement, a key step forward in Nepal’s faltering peace process.
“After a lot of delays we are finally ready to discharge the disqualified Maoist combatants from the UN-monitored camps. It is a milestone for the country’s peace process,” a spokesman for the peace ministry said. “We hope it will pave the way for the crucial step of rehabilitating and reintegrating Maoist combatants.”
The former fighters were confined to UN-supervised camps as part of the 2006 accord that followed the end of the conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state.
In December 2007 the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) completed a verification process and found that 2,973 were minors when the war ended and another 1,035 were not genuine combatants.
They had been slated for release soon afterwards, but the process was repeatedly delayed by disagreements between the Maoist party, now in opposition, and its political rivals.
Over the next month all 4,008 will leave the camps, a move PLA spokesman Chandra Prasad Khanal said would “send a message to the world that we are committed to peace.”
“For us this is a sad moment because we are sending away our fellow fighters in the decade-long people’s war,” he said. “But we are taking this step in order to bring the peace process to a logical conclusion.”
Media access to the camps is restricted, but in a briefing organized by the PLA, one former child soldier expressed his regret at leaving the camp.
“I’m not happy to be leaving, I’m doing so because the party has told me I must,” said 23-year-old Toyaraj Koirala, who joined the PLA at age 13. “I’m leaving the PLA, but my involvement with the Maoist party will continue.”
The discharge of the former child soldiers will allow the Maoists to be removed from a UN list of organizations that use children in conflict.
Rights groups say the former rebels forcibly recruited child soldiers during the conflict, sometimes demanding one person from every home in areas under their control, although some signed up voluntarily.
Many became cooks or porters or did medical work, but they also received military training.
The Maoists want the remaining 20,000 PLA members to be integrated into the regular army, a key tenet of the peace agreement.
However, the military’s opposition to such a move has hampered progress, and last year a row between the then army chief Rukmangad Katawal and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal over the issue brought down the Maoist-led government.
No one is even sure how many former fighters remain in the camps — they are not being kept there by force and several thousand are believed to have walked out in the three years since the end of the war.
Those being officially discharged will receive a set of civilian clothes and identity papers, and each will be given 10,000 rupees (US$135) to travel back to their villages and begin setting up a home.
There, they will be given access to vocational training and education, while UN observers will monitor their progress amid concerns they could be lured into Nepal’s growing number of criminal gangs, many of which have political links.
“The release of these young people sends out a symbolic message for the new year,” said Gillian Mellsop, Nepal representative of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Not only can these young people now finally get on with their lives, but this also marks a new beginning at the start of a new decade for Nepal, so that it can move forward to a more stable, peaceful future.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of